~ 30th July 2014 ~ There was an incredibly long filament on the surface of the Sun today, which looked awesome. I’m only new to solar observing but this object looked very powerful indeed...could it mean that in a few days time Earth will be experiencing some wonderful auroras :-) The Ha images were taken with a 80mm Lunt solar telescope and Canon 7D camera with a 3x Barlow lens. The white light image was taken also with a Canon 7D camera and a 100-400mm lens and 2x converter fitted with a solar filter.

Filaments are in fact, solar prominences directly seen ejecting out from the Suns surface

~ 17th July 2014 ~ After all the excitement of the past two weeks it’s quite different to see no sunspots at all on the surface of the Sun! Viewing with the Ha solar telescope, there is still some activity happening around the limb of the Sun (west is to the top). There are some nice shaped prominences and also quite a large filament, but the rest of the surface is very very quite. My images were taken with a Canon 7D fitted with a 2x Barlow lens and Lunt 80mm solar telescope. I use the monochrome setting in the camera for the black and white image (which gives a more contrasted view) and the colour image is close to the colour as seen in the solar telescope. Both images were a composite of two images; one for showing the surface and the other overexposed image to show the prominences. The normal white light image was taken with a Canon 100-400 mm lens and 2x converter fitted with a glass solar filter and a tripod. Exposure time was 1/750th second and ISO 320.

~ 10th July 2014 ~ What a wonderful surprise I got this morning when I looked at the Sun and seen this magnificent prominence on the western limb. The structure was so delicate and intricate…it was just so beautiful. We are having such clear and sunny weather here at the moment, so every day I’ve been able to observe the solar surface and watch these amazing large sunspot groups rotate across the Sun. My images were taken with a Canon 7D camera with a 2x Barlow lens fitted and a Lunt 80mm solar telescope. Surface image: 15 images stacked in RegiStax6 exposure 1/180th and ISO 160. Overexposed image: 10 images 1/15th second and ISO 160 stacked in RegiStax6. Then I combined the two images in PS CS4 for this composite…I also like this colour as it’s close to the true colour as seen in the eyepiece of the solar telescope :-)

Solar Prominences are ionised hydrogen emissions being ejected from the Suns limb…how awesome is that!

There was a lot of activity happening on the surface of the Sun today, all around the large sunspot groups AR2104, AR2107 and the new AR2109, the areas were just seething…there were also some beautiful prominences all around the limb. This is a composite image, with a series of 16 images stacked in RegiStax6 for the surface, and one for the solar flares and prominences, then stacked in PS CS4. The colour is close to the colour as seen in the telescope and picked up by my camera. Images taken with a Canon 7D and Lunt 80mm solar telescope with a 2x Barlow lens, exposure time for surface images was 1/180th seconds and ISO 160, the overexposed image was 1/15th second and ISO 320.

The Sun looks spectacular today with three large spotspot groups on its surface, the new group AR2109 looks like a beauty! Image taken with a Canon 7D and 100-400mm lens with 2x converter fitted with a glass solar filter. Exposure time was 1/750th second and ISO 320, 18 images stacked in RegiStax6 and slight process in PS CS4.